Duathlon - Somers

It was perfect conditions for the Duathlon, which is always a nice change in the middle of winter.  The slightly later start of 9am gave the temperature a chance to creep above 10 degrees, which meant it was warm enough to race in just my tri top (no need for a bicycle jersey or arm warmers).  There was a good turnout from the Triathlon club including Martine doing her first ever Duathlon.  Jan and Courtney were in Sydney for the City to Surf Fun Run, but my wife Elaine, Peter and the Howards were back to race again and they were being joined by Bill and Jeremy.

Having had at least one good training week since the last Duathlon at Knox, I decided to pretend I was in good form and race hard from the start.  Unfortunately most of field took off ridiculously fast, so I immediately changed strategy and reverted to trying to pace myself as best I could.  My first km was run in 3m48s, but the head of the field was already completely out of the sight and there was a decent gap between me and the main pack.  Concentrating on maintaining good rhythm I pulled back and passed a handful of competitors and ended with a 5km run split of 20m16s, 72 secs faster than Knox so I was very happy.  However this run ended up being ranked 42 out of 82 competitors, so I was in the back half of the field.

After a slow transition, I got to the mount line and realised I still hadn't practised mounting my new tri-bike.  Due to the much steeper seat angle, the seat sits a lot higher than my old bike and I was very hesitant to try and leap onto it for the first time in a race, so I settled for a conservative mount.

The Somer's course has a slightly longer bike leg (an extra 2km) and I figured this would probably go in my favour.  I set off after my competitors, but with the help of a power meter was able to pace myself much better than in the past.  Being able to see your wattage helps prevent you from over exerting up the hills and from slacking off on the downhills and flats.  I haven't calculated my FTP yet, but had a rough idea from the 2x5km TTs I did at the velodrome and decided to try and maintain a fairly constant 280 watts.  I caught and passed a lot of riders on the 2nd lap (of 2) and was I was definitely happy with my first real hitout on the new bike.  I ended up with the 15th fastest bike split overall (and fastest in my age category), which moved me from 42nd to 25th place.  My average speed for the 22km bike split was 36.6kph and average wattage was 270.  As far as the bike fit went, I think I would actually be more comfortable if the front was a bit lower, but I doubt anything is going to make the seat feel better.

Even though the final run in a sprint duathlon is only 3km, it is always the most painful part of the race and usually the section where my race falls apart.  Coming out of T2, I saw I had small lead over Peter and if I could maintain a good rhythm I should be able to hold him off.  An average pace of 4m10s saw me lose 8 places in the overall standings, but was enough to hold off Peter who ended up only clawing back 7 seconds.


Elaine won her age group again, Bill and I both scored second places whilst Martine and Jeremy finished in that unlucky 4th place.  Peter placed 5th (3 secs behind 4th) and the Howards were very happy with their efforts in the Mini after competing as individuals instead of forming a team.

Overall I am extremely pleased with how the race went and suprised to score a 2nd place (other races on the same day no doubt weakened the field in my age group).  Hopefully I'll get in 3 solid weeks of training before the Kinglake Ride (a hilly 75km) and be well prepared for the Kew Boulevard Duathlon the week after.  The Kew Duathlon is a on a very tough course and is part of the National Series.  This means it is a selection race for the Age Group World Championships to be held in France in around Sep 2012 - and Elaine really wants to go to France again.

How Sprint Duathlon form relates to Ironman, I don't know.  But I'm in better condition than I expected, and that can only be a good thing.